Recently in Movies General Category

Tomorrow night, I will be a guest at Charo's house in Beverly Hills. What a long strange trip it has been from my Cuchi-Cuchi Hawaiian Style party in 1996 to this point. I am excited and I don't know what to expect, but Tiffany will be accompanying me and I will have my camera so look for some photos in the next few days.

Work has been going well - I am really happy with what I am doing, and I look forward to an exciting summer! It is hard to believe that it has been almost a year since we opened the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage at the park. The other night, I found a one-year anniversary pin which will go well with all the other collectibles that I have gathered from the attraction. I really need to get organized and start hanging stuff up around my apartment. It seems whenever I want to do that it is near the time of year that my lease is up, and I think, this is going to be the year I am going to move, and I never do it. Five years later, I still do not have much up on the walls. All I know is that when I actually do move, one of my first objectives will be to decorate the halls.

Another exciting thing is that I have a second website to work on, so its nice to get back into some web work. I am a bit rusty when it comes to web site work, bit it is good to shake the rust off and get some work done. It is a bit challenging to balance my time since I am working long hours, but thank goodness I took the FOCUS class a few months ago!

I did see Prince Caspian last week (I know two movies in a week!). I was a bit let down - not that I thought it was a bad movie, but I think the LWATW was just a better story. It will be interesting to see how the movies will evolve since some of the major characters don't show up in all the movies. It's very different than most movie sequels and I feel it will have an impact on how well they do.

Toy Story Midway Mania opens in two weeks at Disney's California Adventure. I had mixed feelings about it when I heard what it was going to be, but I will be the first to admit it is a really fun ride with a lot of repeatability - something that modern attractions need in order to be a break out hit. If you get a chance, head on down to the resort when it opens June 17 - you will have a blast! (Of course I am still partial to Buzz Lightyear - better game play and the free photos! Sorry, I am totally biased!)

This past week I have made it through a few DVDs in between training shifts.

First up: Meet the Robinsons
I missed this Disney CGI movie when it came out last year. It was the first time since Chicken Little I missed one in the theaters (heck I even saw Home on the Range in theaters). Maybe its something against CGI. At any rate, I was pleasantly surprised by the movie and it was much better than I expected. Perhaps it is the age-old axiom of low expectations=better movie experience. I recommend you check it out.

Second Up: Paprika
This is a Japanese anime movie that Tara and Brian saw last year and Daniel had been wanting to see for awhile. He finally found it on DVD and we sat down and watched it. Directed by Satoshi Kon from a story by Yasutaka Tsutsui, it is a story of a group of scientists who have invented a device that records your dreams onto a laptop. It reminds me of Until the End of the World with better reception on the laptop. It was truly entertaining and despite being a bit difficult to follow at times, it is well worth the investment. Another recommendation to check out!

Third but not last: Oxygene Live in your Living Room
It is not often that Amazon delivers to me a Jean Michel Jarre video, so naturally I was impatiently roaming the halls at work waiting to get this in the mail. Jarre performs his classic 1977 album "Oxygene" in real time (with some filler here and there). What is really amazing is that he does it with the help of three other musicians and does it on lold 1970s era synthesizers. I was enthralled for the entire 60 minute concert.

Those of you lucky enough to be in Europe, he is performing the same concert live at various venues. His concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London sold out in 2 hours (Ok so he is not Hannah Montana, but that is fast for Jarre). The disc also comes with a 3D version of the concert which I was not able to get to work. I am not sure if it is the video or my eyes or my equipment, but it just looked all misaligned. Many users of the Jarre newsgroup have indicated it is difficult to get it to work. One day, perhaps I will have a big enough room to make it work. As a bonus there is a re-recording of Oxygene (my 3rd such recording) to listen to in the car. For you Jarre fans out there what are you waiting for? Go get it!

Well I am back from a bit of a hiatus!

I went ahead and updated my photos from my two weekend getaways - Solvang and San Francisco. The trip to Solvang includes a stop over at the Kwik-E-Mart in Burbank. I thought it was rather cleverly done, despite the fact the Buzz Cola and the donuts were a little nasty tasting.

Speaking of Simpsons, I attempted to break out of my non-movie watching slump and went last night to the movies to see The Simpsons Movie. We arrived about 15 minutes early and after buying tickets and stopping at the bathroom, we ended up in the theater 10 minutes before it started. We were surprised to find the movie starting already. We shrugged it off and settled in to try and enjoy the movie. 10 minutes into the movie (or the real start time) it just stopped. I theorize that they discovered it was already running and were trying to figure out how to stop and re-wind. Unfortunately. after 45 minutes of delays and dealing with the hordes of obnoxious kids and teens in the theater, they finally told us that they were going to give us our money back.

Me and Daniel had been iffy about going to the Block at Orange to see movies lately since the patrons seem prone to interrupt movies and the quality of the facility is on the decline. After this incident (despite being comped the movie and given a re-ad for another movie), it will be a long time before we go back here. There are plenty of newer and nicer facilities out there.

One last photo note, I finally updated the Gorn page with the photos that I have taken in the last 8 months. It has been awhile and I was a little rusty getting them up, but hopefully I will get more into the groove.